"We think [Colorado governor Bill Owens is] on the wrong side of this
[gun control legislation] issue," said NRA spokesman Jim Manown.
"He's on the wrong side of his party, and he's on the wrong side of
gun owners in Colorado." The NRA endorsed Owens and financially
backed him in his 1998 election.

The president ... chose a pretty poor example to underscore his
fondness for mingling with the common folk. "I've tried to not get
too aloof from the people," he said in response to a question about
whether the presidency is becoming too disconnected from the public.

"I went down to the Rio Grande Valley the other day. I was the first
president since President Eisenhower to go down there and I've been
there three times. And a lot of people came out and I stopped along
the street and talked to them and visited with them."

What kind of people did the president meet in Texas that day last
week? Mostly rich ones. The only events on his public schedule were
two closed-to-cameras fundraisers: one for the DNC, one for
Congressman Ruben Hinojosa.

According to a pool reporter who traveled in the motorcade, both took
place in private homes in a gated community. Tickets for the DNC
fundraiser were $5,000 a person. Those attending Hinojosa's event
paid just $1,000. The president did stop for food at a taco
restaurant in McAllen and shake a few hands before getting back on
Air Force One to head to Dallas to raise a half-million dollars for
the DNC.

Rather than ban outright the purchase of machineguns and sawed-off
shotguns -- the weapons of choice for the mobsters -- Congress in 1934
simply imposed a tax those weapons. Paying the tax required
registering the weapon. The registration requirement was intended to
discourage ownership of such weapons without outlawing them. No
self-respecting gangster would want to register, much less pay the
tax, on his Tommygun. Their evasion of the tax gave the government
another legal tool to use in arresting the gangsters and breaking up
the mobs.

Source: Report of The Department of the Treasury on the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms: Investigation of Vernon Wayne Howell,
also known as David Koresh September 1993; Appendix G

DISPERSE, YOU REBELS!

The raid by ATF agents on the Branch Davidian compound resulted from
its enforcement of contemporary federal firearms laws. In a larger
sense, however, the raid fit within an historic, well-established and
well-defended government interest in prohibiting and breaking up all
organized groups that sought to arm or fortify themselves. The 1934
law taxing weapons was only the first time the federal government
addressed private ownership of weapons; it was not the first federal
effort to control firearms. From its earliest formation, the federal
government has actively suppressed any effort by disgruntled or
rebellious citizens to coalesce into an armed group, however small
the group, petty its complaint, or grandiose its ambition. ...

Source: ibid.

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS ... THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES

The passage of the National Firearms Act of 1934, the first federal
effort to control private ownership of firearms, grew out of this
historic fear of armed organizations. [In other words, in order to
control gangs, we must control the general population as a whole.]
The various collections of gangsters that proliferated during
Prohibition were the true targets of the law, which required a tax
and registration on the sale of their weapons of choice--machineguns
and sawed-off shotguns. [So, as soon as Prohibition ended and the
alleged gangster threat subsided, the law was repealed -- right? -
ed.] Subsequent federal firearms laws have been of a piece. [A truer
statement than intended. - ed.] Other than the 1968 ban on mail-order
sales, which was in direct, though delayed, [yeah, five years
delayed! - ed.] response to the assassination of President Kennedy,
federal gun laws have typically been concerned with the weapons of
considerable destructive power generally preferred by organized
groups--bombs, machineguns, and automatic weapons. [Hey, don't forget
silencers, short barrels, ugly guns, cheap guns, foreign guns, flash
suppressors, bayonet lugs, thumb-hole stocks, pistol grips,
magazines, multiple sales, and private sales. - ed.]

Source: ibid.

NO KIDDING?!

In recent times, the federal government has shown itself even less
patient with armed groups than it had historically.

Source: ibid.

SAY WHAT?

... South Carolinian Republicans preferred Bush's brand of
conservatism to John McCain's, for a number of good reasons. They
didn't like the way McCain appealed to Democrats and independents
(plus libertarians and vegetarians), ...

[OK, quickly now, let's have a show of hands of "libertarians for
McCain". ... Anyone? ... Bueller?]

PLANNING TO HANG ON TO THOSE GUNS?

I am uniquely qualified to comment on the "hacker hysteria" we now
see in the global media. A reformed hacker myself, I spent nearly
four-and-a-half years in federal detention in US prisons awaiting
trial. For 49 months I was denied a bail hearing (unprecedented in US
history according to my defence team's research) and denied release
on bail.

After learning of the prosecutors' "promise" to keep me in prison
without bail and to retry me repeatedly in different jurisdictions
until they obtained a conviction, I realised that pleading guilty to
nine of the original 27 charges, eight of which I did not commit, was
my only realistic choice.

In an extraordinary apology to readers, the prestigious New England
Journal of Medicine admitted violating its financial
conflict-of-interest policy 19 times over the past three years in its
selection of doctors to review new drug treatments.

The Boston-based weekly journal, considered one of the world's
premier medical publications, disclosed in Thursday's issue that it
let doctors who had financial ties to the drug makers write the
articles. [...]